The Bellaire Corridor Donut: There’s an International Zone Between the Loop and Beltway, but Not So Much Dough

University of Houston architecture professor Susan Rogers explores the Bellaire-Holcombe corridor from Highway 6 to the Med Center and finds a donut in her path.

For each census tract that intersects Holcombe or Bellaire Blvd., Rogers tallied the total number of residents born outside the United States and those residents’ country of origin, using 2000 Census data. The results surprised her:

Most of the action is in the zone between the Loop and the Beltway. “The diversity drops steeply inside 610,” she notes:

I had graphed the street from just 610 to Hwy. 6 for a talk on the links between Asia and Houston and then decided to add the rest as a potential “contrast” – what I found when I completed it absolutely astounded me – the absolute drop is so stark – and of course the income graph is nearly the exact opposite . . .

The biggest revelation to me is that someone had to do research to make this correlation. Not saying it’s right, but it isn’t exactly rocket science. White people in the loop only want minorities around when it comes time to outsource child care and housework, sad to say. I completed this research by opening my eyes.

Who is surprised by this? Restaurants from probably 50 ethnicities, ethnic grocery stores, and street signs in Chinese and Viet are found close to Beltway 8.

Inside the Loop we find doggy day care, dog parks, pet psychologists, Costco, Whole Paycheck, and busybodies who are always complaining about things that “don’t belong” or are “out of scale” with their neighborhoods.

Again, is this feigned surprise to bring attention to “research” results, or genuine surprise?

“and of course the income graph is nearly the exact opposite”
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Why “of course”? I hope she doesn’t think race/country of origin and income are fundamentally related…
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No, but immigrant status and income are pretty well negatively correlated and always have been (regardless of the race of the immigrant). It’s the second and third generation that does well, typically.

The same conclusions could be drawn just by watching the trial of the Bellaire police officer who is on trial for shooting a suspected car thief while another officer was slamming the suspected car thief’s mother into a garage door. Her garage door. Who came outside to find out why the police officers were harassing her son. The official version is her son was a suspected car thief. The real version is he was pursued because he was “Driving While Black in Bellaire.” Also known as a Driving While Black in the “better neighborhoods.”

The officer most likely will be acquitted. Mainly because the prosector actually stated to the jury that the officer “overreacted.” No doubt the prosecutor lives in Bellaire. Where everyone “overreacts” to anyone who is not
“Caucasian-looking.”

From RWB: “It’s the second and third generation that does well, typically.”
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Agreed. A graph of enrollment in the AP classes at Bellaire High School would bear this out.

And for what it is worth, I think Susan Rogers’ graphs are pretty cool. I would be interested in seeing a time component added, using census data from previous decades to illustrate the evolution of this corridor since the Second World War.

Nice to see the information in a graphic like that. Not sure I’d use the word “astounding” to describe the revelation that the oldest parts of west Houston aren’t bursting with immigrants. Or that immigrant poplulations of the last 40 years moved into affordable places in the western suburbs. Or that immigrants aren’t as wealthy as people who have been here for generations. But it’s neat nonetheless.

What an ill-informed and off-topic response to an interesting thread.
If Sgt. Cotton is acquited, it will not be race-related. I played baseball at Bellaire and later, lived within 1-2 minutes of the Tolan home, so I know the area, and sympathize with the Tolan family. I believe they deserve civil damages because of the result. To suggest that Sgt, Cotton fired because of someones’ race is idiotic. This was a purported crime scene at 2 am within a few blocks of one of the highest crime areas on the SW side and testimony shows that B. Tolan “sprang” to his feet after being told to sit. Sgt. Cotton-under oath- testified that he thought B. Tolan reached for his waistband. His best info-relayed by radio- was that these were two car theft suspects, regardless of being at home.
Again, I believe that there were honest mistakes made and led to a terrible result. Stupid race-baiting solves nothing, and, BTW, are you claiming that the the prosector is from Bellaire, and if so, he/she is crooked? You don’t know much about prosecutors, do you, Matt?
(Among the many other issues in re: this trial you don’t know/understand)

Nice try, Quanell, Jr.

Anyway, I found the graphic interesting and useful and hope she looks at other corridors in the same fashion.

What an ill-informed and off-topic response to an interesting thread.
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Matt loves to take a topic as far off course as possible in order to interject his views on on the world.

@ Udunno
Why am I not surprised a pro-cop response like yours has a subtly racial comment like “Quanel Jr” towards the end? There’s a big difference between disproving a race related post and mocking a poster with mentions of race baiting and XYZ civil rights activist. You might as well call him Jesse Jackson and tell him to call BET or some other sort of typical “anti-anti-racist” response.

PS: If anybody’s under the impression that DWB through a nicer neighborhood doesn’t raise a few eyebrows from the cops, you’ve never DWB. I live in a gated community myself and get tail gated by Officer Lardass a few times a year..

What an ill-informed and off-topic response to an interesting thread.
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“The diversity drops steeply inside 610,” she notes:

Susan Rogers posted that. Not me. And I wasn’t the only one who commented about the “between the lines” comment really being made.

And actually I do know about prosecutors. I am a member of a national prosecutors forum focusing on sexual assault and stalking. I also have filed complaints against several of our finest with the AG’s Office.

As for the racism of Bellaire, it is pretty much accepted as fact. But on a “real estate note” no doubt the acquittal of the officer will result in Bellaire being the one area seeing a significant increase in home value.

This was a purported crime scene at 2 am within a few blocks of one of the highest crime areas on the SW side and testimony shows that B. Tolan “sprang” to his feet after being told to sit.
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Jeez. The officer thought he stole his own car and had pulled into his own driveway? Negligence at best. Racism at worst. Most believe the latter. As for his springing to his feet, hopefully at some point some officer will have you lying on the ground while another officer slams your motehr into the garage door. And you can let us know how you reacted. When a mother comes out of her own house and asks what is going on and why her son is lying there with bubbas pointing guns at him, the bubbas should have realized right then and there something was wrong. With them and their assumption that they had nailed a car thief. Instead they slammed her into her own garage door. Bellaire has earned a reputation for racism. And the residents of Bellaire for the most part seem quite proud of it. Helps preserve their pristine neighborhood. Again, my opinion. But the opinion of quite a few others.

I hate to ask but what motivated Susan Rogers and the Architecture Department of Rice to do this study? Is there another part of the study with regard to architectural styles, perhaps, to be found in different demographical sections of the city? I think we already know the difference between a house a poor person lives in, or rents, and a house a rich person lives in, or rents, and the “median” in between the two.

Maybe they had a taxpayer-funded research grant and couldn’t come up with anything else to research?

Maybe she should have suggested a joint reseach project with the Psychology Department. Maybe done psychological profiles of different neighborhoods.

I’d love to see what they would come up with in the “upper-income” neighborhoods.

Oh, she’s with U of H. Talking on the phone and typing doesn’t lend itself well to spell check or fact check. Still a university. Still a research project. And still most likely paid for by the taxpayers. Who are tired of paying for the nonense the university professors come up with as reasons to pay part of their salaries each year.

Just wondering, is there a reason she didn’t follow Bissonnet eastward as it becomes Binz, heads toward Almeda, crosses over 288, and becomes Calumet in the middle of Riverside Terrace? Or would that mess up the “inside the loop is lily-white” chart?
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Why all the hate and classist envy? Diversity — of ethnic origin, of skin tone, of income levels — exists even inside the loop. Start at Dunlavy and Allen Parkway, and travel it southward. You’ll pass shiny new sprawling apartment complexes; 0-10 year old townhouses next door to renovated bungalows; 1930s quadplexes; 1960s courtyard apartment complexes; the tiny old corner shopping strip that houses a freaky foods, a washateria, and La Guadalupana (yum!); my favorite Fiesta; charity shops and art galleries. (Disclaimer: not in that order!) And a not-so-surprising number of pedestrians and bicyclists who live in the area.
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Not everyone inside the loop lives in a monocultural neighborhood.

Matt Sez – “Still a university. Still a research project. And still most likely paid for by the taxpayers. Who are tired of paying for the nonense the university professors come up with as reasons to pay part of their salaries each year.”
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If you actually read the original article, she prepared this graph for a talk she was giving, not as part of some tax-payer funded research. Quit being such a douche…

This chart does not say it’s lily white inside the loop. It simply charts where people born outside of the country live — not where minorities live. If you look closely it includes European immigrants in the foreign born poplulation chart. You can find them at Ron’s Pub — outside the loop.

What this graph tells us is that people inside 610 are overwhelmingly natives, while immigrants settle in the burbs. Last time I checked there was plenty of diversity inside the loop — all this chart tells us is that it’s home grown diversity instead of immigrants.

Maybe then next tax-wasting project this Professor can do is to research how people project their own insecurites onto data to reach the wrong conclusion.

An impartial Harris County acquitted Sgt. Cotton in FOUR HOURS. Note, genius: NOT a Bellaire jury.

The prosecutors had no objections to the verdict, and in fact, one said she felt the jury did a good job paying attention to the facts. See, Matt, THE FACTS were the basis for the verdict.

Bellaire is not a racist community. You have demonstrable proof otherwise? Then stop lying, please. You, however, based upon your comments, are a despicable racist who tries to tar entire communities through innuendo – no facts.

As I mentioned, I hope that the Tolans get compensation for this honest mistake, but the City may well prevail on the civil side. If I helped govern Bellaire, I’d certainly keep in mind that the Tolans immediately tried to assert “racial profiling” and have therefore dragged the city’s state/local name through racist mud. They may just pass on any settlement, given the facts established on the criminal side, and destroy the federal “case”.

You are a merely a blowhard racist (Yes, “Quanell, Jr.”; I’m using deliberate hyperbole to summarize an opportunistic racist) with NO actionable facts.

I’ll go with the: impartial jury, the judge, the prosecutor, the officer, and the facts as established at trial. You go with Quanell X, who was seen ranting (again) post-trial. I guess no murderers called for an escort yesterday, so he was available.

I’m quite the lighter shade of pale but I was pulled over more than once by the Bellaire police in my younger years for DWP(Driving While Poor). My sad old Dodge Dart with the primered fender just seemed to scream trouble. Of course, after the plates were run and my spotless record reported back, the officers couldn’t have been nicer, but it did get to be a bit of a joke at my workplace

If I helped govern Bellaire, I’d certainly keep in mind that the Tolans immediately tried to assert “racial profiling” and have therefore dragged the city’s state/local name through racist mud. They may just pass on any settlement, given the facts established on the criminal side, and destroy the federal “case”.
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It wasn’t just the Tolans. It was quite a few people. In my experience people who call people who speak out about racism racists are really just doing so to cover up their own racism. I grew up in Braes Heights. And I dobut the West U cops, the Southside Place cops, and the Bellaire cops have changed much. Nor have their defenders. Most of whom just want to keep their pristine little enclaves as “minority-free” as possible.

As for “facts” when a prosecutor tells a jury the defendant “overreacted” that’s hardly what I call presenting thte facts. I call it giving the jury an out so to speak.

“Well, even the prosecutor said he overreacted.”

Just the same the “facts” couldn’t have been that clear if it took the jury 4 hours to reach a verdict.

Diversity — of ethnic origin, of skin tone, of income levels — exists even inside the loop. Start at Dunlavy and Allen Parkway, and travel it southward. You’ll pass shiny new sprawling apartment complexes; 0-10 year old townhouses next door to renovated bungalows; 1930s quadplexes; 1960s courtyard apartment complexes; the tiny old corner shopping strip that houses a freaky foods, a washateria, and La Guadalupana (yum!); my favorite Fiesta; charity shops and art galleries. (Disclaimer: not in that order!) And a not-so-surprising number of pedestrians and bicyclists who live in the area.
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Not everyone inside the loop lives in a monocultural neighborhood.

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Check back in 20 years, GoogleMaster, and see if there is still all that diversity. After the economy improves and those apartment complexes are worth tearing down and replaced with million dollar townhomes. After the washaterias and the taquerias and of course Fiesta are long gone. And even some of the restored bungalows. And the strip centers.

Chi-chi has its eyes set on that whole area. And chi-chi firmly believes that what displeases the eyes should be “out of sight, out of mind.” And bulldozed.

As I said, you have no demonstrable proof that Bellaire is racist.
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And you have no demonstrable proof that it isn’t. Although the mayor of Bellaire claims the report last year indicated there is no problem with racial profiling in Bellaire. In a city where 80% of the residents are white, 56% of the traffic stops involved minorities. Maybe it’s because minorities don’t keep their inspection and registration up to date. Or maybe they don’t know their brake light is out. Or maybe they are minorities just driving through. And maybe the cops stopped them to wish them a nice day. “Ya’ll don’t come back now, ya hear?”

NAACP and LULAC both spoke out about the report. And both NAACP and LULAC are standing behind the Tolan family. And others. But then, well, they’re just racists. They don’t like all those white people who live in Bellaire.

What they don’t like is all those white people who live in Bellaire approving of a police department that obviously, per its own report, stops far more minorities than whites on the streets of Bellaire.

But hey, again, it’s all good. The law and order folks, all white of course, will keep moving to Bellaire. So it will be good business for the realtors. The white ones anyway.

Thank you for acknowledging that you have no demonstrable proof that Bellaire is racist.

Lights out on you.

There is no obligation to prove that Bellaire is not racist. You (and yours’) have the affirmative obligation to offer proof.

So far, you, Quanell, the NAACP, and LULAC- opportunists all – have failed to tar a community because of this single unfortunate non-racist incident.

As to the stats you cite, yes, lower socio-eco folks are more likely to drive more run-down vehicles (lights out, insp stickers, etc.) and are therefore more likely to be cited. You undermine your own weak argument.
Also, both Bellaire Blvd. and Bissonnet – major E-W arteries flow through densely populated, low-income areas, then through Bellaire. It is no secret these areas are overwhelmingly Latino. It stands to reason that many drive such vehicles and are likely to be ticketed. If the adjacent population was equivalent WHITE socio-eco with similar vehicle issues, the percentages you cling to would go straight into the toilet, because the stats would skew WHITE.

You don’t even know the area.

Lies, damn lies and cherry-picked, misleading staistics. Last refuge of the race-baiters.

Say “hi” to Quanell and ask him to get back to what he does best – befriending murderers in order to get TV time.

BTW, congrats on the outpouring of outraged support. What a ragtag turnout of 20-25 people at City Hall. Guess the race-bait message fell through.
Back to the drawing board, racist.

Matt Mystery: Wow, you must have some very bad experiences in the past with the city of Bellaire. I usually enjoy your post but your racist comments are troubling. The kind of thinking that justifies your labeling all the “whites” in Bellaire is what allows other ethnic groups to be labeled and justify prejudices. Better to stay away from the racial hatrid game promoted by the likes of LULAC and NAACP.

My brother has flamed through the lights at S. Rice & Bissonnet in front of Bellaire police more than once; mostly to laugh at the days when we would creep up Chimney Rock at 25 MPH for fear of them, but he drives a late-model Audi these days. We have yet to encounter interference.

Please someone correct me if I’m wrong, but are not the names of jury members made public somewhere after a trial is done? Years ago, I had the occasion to testify against an HPD officer and was told by the wife of a Harris County constable who was a co-worker and a good friend that I could “beat the rap, but I wouldn’t beat the ride”. In other words, my name would be “out there”.

Considering all experiences, if a law enforcement officer told me to drop my pants and eat dirt, I’d probably do so. Coward? Maybe so, but I have too much to lose to risk fighting that variety of unbeatable Hydra.

I think “diversity” and “income level” get used in place of each other and shouldn’t necessarily be. Yes, the inner loop offers diversity, especially in the day. But when it is time to go to sleep at night, who can afford to actually live there? Businss owners and employees may live elsewhere. All those new apartments and new townhomes and renovated whatever are expensive. Those who can’t afford it mostly have to live elsewhere. Are there some small pockets of exception? Sure. But they are dwindling as they are bulldozed for new stuff. Maybe you don’t have to be white to live there, but you need some good money for sure…which means the bias is against the poor more than race. Bellaire built over plenty of poor white trash (some I knew personally) and pushed them out to become what Bellaire is now because poor = yuck, esp from the window of a McMansion.

Wow, you must have some very bad experiences in the past with the city of Bellaire.
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Actually I haven’t. Not with the police in Bellaire, West U, or Southside Place. But I know those who have. Again, I grew up in the area. And grew up with the mindset. Which hasn’t changed. If that makes me a racist to say that, so be it.

I grew up with children of a broker who broke the race barrier in Tanglewood so to speak. And went to work for that broker. She never forgot the fact that had a Justice Department official not been at the closing, there would have been no closing. Lots of others, including other brokers, never forgot it either. And never wanted to do business with her because of it.

Racism is very much a part of real estate in this city. And anyone who says different is lying.

Damn, if I thought Bellaire was racist I’d move there in a New York minute! My own neighborhood has become a swamp of break-ins, burglaries and vandalism in the past five years thanks to the multi-ethnic diversity that moved in. New Years Eve sounded like Baghdad with all the gunfire.